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Steve Jobs directly confirmed to one questioner that Apple would charge for its 802.11n enabler for existing Macintoshes. A reader who prefers to remain anonymous forwarded to Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Networking News the mail he sent to Steve Jobs, Apples CEO, and the reply he received. He included mail headers so that I can confirm the mail is legitimate.

The reader asked Jobs whether press reports were in error that Apple would charge $5 for an enabler that would turn on the 802.11n functions in most Core 2 Duo and Xeon systems shipped in 2006. Jobs replied, simply, Its

Introduction

• Easy to install and configure
• Supports iOS and Android
• Automatic switch from low to high quality when switching network types on the end device
• iOS app continues to add features and become more stable

Cons

• iOS app is expensive compared to competing solutions
•Orb server software is hardware sensitive
• Internet Radio interface is annoying to use on iOS devices.

Orb Media has come quite a long way since I originally joined its beta program. Originally, the product was basically a competitor in the space of products like TVersity or Twonky Media Server. So while Orb worked fine, I had no real use for it as I already had TVersity set up and working.

These days, Orb is marketing hard to the integrator markets, like NAS and media server builders, and this integration is what I’ll be taking a look at today using iOS test devices.

Setup

NETGEAR was kind enough to provide us with a ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (the same model Tim reviewed in September). The ReadyNAS Ultra NAS line-up is very focused on being at the center of your media storage setup. The NAS software is extensible, and has many addons that are geared for media serving like Orb and Skifta (to be reviewed later).

The installation for Orb on a ReadyNAS can be a little unnerving, as you basically have to run a firmware “update”, which you download from readynas.com. As my background is in programming and networking, I tend to distrust firmware updates since many times they can cause more harm than good.

In this particular case, the whole process was over in five minutes and went smoothly. If you don’t already have an account, registration is free and the NETGEAR addon actually handles it on the device. Orb also offers server software for Windows and Mac OS machines.

The Ultra is, in fact, the same exact unit Tim reviewed, so it has the same speedy Seagate Constellation drives in it. I loaded 50 GB of movies onto it in about 30 minutes, as my current media server (a Drobo that is plugged into a Dell Mini 9), can only do 10/100 speed. Once the files were in place, Orb scanned the “media” directory that is default on the Ultra. You can change where Orb scans, but I left it on the standard setting, the default media directory on the ReadyNAS. Orb found it without an issue and scanned it all quickly.

Orb is a $9.99 app in the Apple app store, although there is a “Lite” version for free. The Lite version picks three random pieces of media to stream whereas the full version allows you to pick from your complete collection. I reviewed the full version and used mostly my iPad, but also tested on my iPhone 3GS to see how Orb handled itself on the older but supported hardware.

Installation was normal and the app is small enough that it can be downloaded over 3G (which makes sense since it really is just an endpoint for the streaming service).

Figure 1: Home Screen of Orb on iPad

Orb does not stand alone in this category though. A very popular solution in the iOS family is AirVideo, although it is iOS only while Orb also supports Android. That said, AirVideo is much less expensive at $2.99 compared to Orb’s $9.99. It does not support everything that Orb does however. So you will have to compare and contrast feature lists in order to see what capabilities you do and don’t need.

In Use

Once installed, the Orb app will ask for your username and password, and the speed of the connection you are using Orb over. Your connection speed determines the quality level that Orb uses for its stream, which is something I’ll discuss more below.

Figure 2: Orb Username and Password

Choosing your connection speed is via a standard “slider” control (as shown in Figure 3), so I picked the halfway point of 3G for my 3GS and the high-end of Wi-Fi for my iPad. These numbers equated to 110 Kbps on my 3GS, and 1200 Kbps on my iPad.

Figure 3: Network Speed Slider Control

A nice feature of the client is that it will increase the streaming quality automatically when you switch from 3G to Wi-Fi. The client also connects out to Orb’s servers, so you don’t have to muck with complicated firewall settings.

As noted above, Orb has you choose what speed your current connection is. This is actually because the Orb server will “transcode” content on the fly so that it matches your current connection speed. This is very important for mobile devices as 3G networks are so much slower even the slowest DSL connection. This transcoding process happens for music and video. Photos seem to be served as original, and any documents (a new feature on the iPhone client) seem to also be served as original content.